--------------------------------------------------
 ^_- I L L   M E T   B Y   S T A R L I G H T ^_-
--------------------------------------------------
by Susan Doenime and Mike Loader

Based on characters and situations created by Rumiko Takahashi, and used
without knowledge or permission.
We ask that you obtain permission from us before printing, posting, or
storing this story in any form.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Previous Chapters archived at: http://www.humbug.org.au/~wendigo/imbs.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 13 - The End of the Matter

 "Can't we sit down, have a beer, talk this over?"
 "No."
 "Okay then, Plan B. Let's just kill each other."
 - Troy & Archer, FaceOff

 When the deal calls for a sacrifice
 And you know you cannot die
 For the edge, the best ones live on
 For it all.
 - Cats Laughing


        Ukyou awoke to darkness and dripping water.

        Wincing, she raised a hand to rub the side of her head. 
She had woken up in the cave, and then Mariko and Shan Pu had 
been there, threatening, and then...

        Her memory was unclear on what had happened. There 
was a vivid image of a shriek of pain and a spurt of crimson, 
but from who, or what... her mind was swimming, fogged.

        Why was it so dark? Ah, her eyes were still closed.

        With an effort, she forced herself to sit up and look 
around. The sight that greeted her was less than encouraging.

        She was in a pit of some sort, with only a flickering 
illumination at the top providing light. The walls were hewn of 
rock, as was the distant ceiling, and an odd blackish dust 
covered everything. Including the floor, which seemed to be 
made of some sort of metal. Water dripped slowly from a 
calcium formation on the cave roof, beating a steady rhythm. 
In the distance, she could make out a low humming and 
clanking.

        Where the hell was she?

        "Hello?" she called out, suddenly desperate for someone 
to answer her. Even the presence of her captors would be 
preferable to having been abandoned in a hole somewhere 
beneath the earth, with no food and no light...

        The light at the top of the pit moved closer, and a face 
peered down over the edge. "Oh, good. You're awake."

        Mariko. "Get me out of this hole, Hibiki. Now!"

        The other girl grinned, wagging a finger down at her. 
"You're in no position to be making demands, Kuonji. No 
position at all."

        Ukyou's heart sank. "Look, what have I ever done to you?"

        "You? You're on Ranma's side." The eyes staring down at 
her turned hard in the lamplight. "I _warned_ you, girl, that 
first day we met. Don't hang around unless you want to fight. 
Well, you hung around, and in doing so caused more than one 
attack to be canceled, and due to that Nabiki died. So you've 
indirectly caused the death of someone who I liked a great 
deal. I've done almost nothing to you, by comparison. Count 
your blessings."

        "Yeah, you've only struck me on the head and tossed me in 
a hole," Ukyou spat sourly. "You've been real kind."

        The other girl shrugged. "Think I wanted to whack you on 
the head? I told you not to put up a fight. I keep warning you, 
and you keep on ignoring me." A mirthless smile appeared. 
"Besides, you should see what you did to poor Shan. Just be 
glad I'm the one guarding you, not her."

        "I didn't want to hurt her either," Ukyou replied. "I just 
didn't feel like being a prisoner."

        "I'm afraid you didn't have a choice in the matter," Mariko 
observed mildly. "And you still don't. So you might as well just 
relax and wait; we'll turn you loose once Ranma's dead."

        "I hope I'm here for a long time, then," she threw back, 
swearing inwardly at herself. Bait. She was being used as bait 
in a trap, just like Akane had been at the Ichishi Building...

        "You might very well be," Mariko told her. "Personally, I 
think Ranma would leave you to rot. But not in front of Akane; 
not with the... means... we used to punctuate our little 
message. No, he'll come, and then that's it. No more retreats, 
no more running away. He dies or we die."

        A cold feeling swept through Ukyou as she looked into 
the eyes above her and saw that the other girl meant what she 
said. After all the work, all the attempts at compromise...

        "Let me speak to Tsen," she begged. "If I can just get him 
to listen..."

        Mariko laughed. "I don't think you want to talk to Tsen 
right now. I really don't."

        "He'll listen to me..."

        Mariko gave her a somewhat sad, level stare. "Our friend 
Tsen is somewhat upset at the moment. He didn't tell me why, 
but I'm guessing that the fact that I found you with your legs 
spread and your pants down around your ankles has something 
to do with it. Especially since what I saw down there didn't 
exactly match the rest of you."

        Ukyou felt her cheeks redden. "You perverted little..."

        Mariko raised an eyebrow. "Hey, I wasn't the one 
displaying her privates to anyone who happened to walk in. Nor 
am I the one who misled people into thinking I was a boy." Her 
expression darkened. "No, I wouldn't suggest talking to Tsen 
right now. You don't know the half of it, and I really don't feel 
like trying to explain it to you."

        Ukyou looked away. She hadn't meant to... certainly she 
had never thought what had happened would happen, it had all 
been on the spur of the moment...

        How could something that had been so wonderful to her 
have hurt him? She did feel something for Tsen, and she 
thought that he had similar feelings. He was a man and she was 
a woman, and wasn't what they had done the natural way of 
things?

        "He... what we did really upset him?" she asked, a bit of 
regret creeping into her voice.

        "Yeah. It did. If it'd been me in his position..." Mariko 
shuddered, her gaze flicking over Ukyou. "Geh. I still don't like 
him much, but I feel for the poor guy. That's not the sort of 
thing I'd wish on anyone."

        "What?" Ukyou snapped, feeling guilty and insulted at the 
same time. "Look, I know I'm not exactly a great beauty, but..."

        "You're straight, right?"

        "Yes," she stiffly responded. "Just because I wear men's 
clothes doesn't..."

        "Sleep with me, and I'll let you go."

        Ukyou's mind locked up. "Wha... ex... excuse me?" she 
choked.

        "Well, how bout it? I've got some really neat toys we 
could use..."

        "I don't think so!" Ukyou snapped, her face as red as a 
beet. "And if you even think of laying one sick finger on me, 
I'll..."

        "Relax," Mariko said, chuckling. "I like guys myself. Just 
proving a point. If you wouldn't sleep with a girl to gain your 
freedom, how d'ya think Tsen feels? He very definitely prefers 
men. Much, much more so than you know."

        Remorse flooded through her. "I didn't mean to hurt him," 
she said quietly. "I... I thought he wanted..."

        "He wanted the bishonen fellow I talked to a while back, 
who sadly doesn't exist." The other girl shrugged, looking 
somewhat sympathetic. "Look, it's not all your fault. Tsen 
wasn't exactly honest with you either. But do try to accept the 
fact that you're not his favorite person in the world right now, 
okay?"

        Silence for a second.

        "You don't have to do this, you know."

        "I do." 

        Ukyou looked up, and saw that the other girl actually 
looked regretful. "You don't. There's still time to stop all 
this..."

        "No. There isn't. And there never has been." Mariko's face 
twisted, hate mixing with sadness. "I want to kill him, but 
that's not all, don't you understand? He kills. He killed my 
brother, and Nabiki, and lord only knows if there have been 
others... but that's not the important thing either. If we just 
walk away, do nothing, Akane will be dead in a year or less. 
And then he'll move on. And then someone else will die, and 
someone else..."

        "He wouldn't hurt Akane. He loves Akane..."

        "I think he loved my brother too, the way a good friend 
loves a good friend. Damn you, Kuonji, he's an evil, sick 
monster! He builds people up, like a child building a sandcastle, 
and then he knocks them into pieces."

        "I think you're wrong," she replied, but as she spoke she 
remembered the knife-edged, hungering need she had seen in 
his eyes. And was not as certain as she had been.

^_-

        Akane watched as Hikaru left, then slowly moved to sit 
on a nearby bench. The brown package felt heavy in her hands.

        She turned it over and over for a few long seconds, 
examining it. Just a brown rectangle tied with string, a white 
label stuck near the top bearing her name in Nabiki's small, 
precise handwriting.

        Was it her will? It would be just like her sister to 
carefully apportion all of her possessions, and equally like her 
to have a courier deliver it out of the blue.

        With a sad smile, she tore open the end and shook it, 
sending two objects tumbling down out of the wrappings and 
into her lap. A sealed letter, with 'Read this First' scrawled 
across it in a size impossible to miss. And a miniature tape 
recorder, with a cassette still inside.

        It probably had Nabiki's voice on it, she realized, throat 
tightening a bit. Hesitantly, she opened the envelope, removing 
a sheet of Nabiki's stationary.

        //Akane,
                I've asked Hikaru to give this to you in the event of 
        my death, so I'll assume that this is the circumstance 
        under which you're reading this. The tape is a private 
        message from myself to my little sister, between you 
        and me. That means you're to play it when you are alone, 
        and not in front of Kasumi, father, Ranma, or anyone else. 
        In fact, don't even let them know it exists. This isn't for 
        them.
                Play it as soon as you have a moment alone.
                Your Sister, Nabiki.  //

        It wasn't a will after all, then.

        Akane stared at the recorder, suddenly seeing it in a new 
light. It was her sister's voice, speaking to her. Recently, too, 
because she mentioned Ranma in the letter. It would be almost 
like talking to Nabiki again.

        Almost.

        Damn it, she thought, fighting to keep from crying. How 
many times was she going to have to say goodbye to her 
sister? Would she ever? So easy to tell Nabiki to go away and 
die, and so hard to accept it when it happened...

        Her finger touched the Play button of the minirecorder, 
pushed slightly downward, and then eased and withdrew. A 
park bench in the middle of the street was no place to have her 
last talk with Nabiki. She'd go home, make herself some tea, 
and then lock herself in her room and listen.

        Standing, she began to make her way home, suddenly 
mindful of the quiet that filled the air. Before, it had seemed 
only fitting; a new, clean slate to mark the new stage of her 
life she had suddenly entered. Now... now it seemed somehow 
ominous. As if the world were holding its breath over how that 
new stage would end.

        She shivered slightly in the cool air. She wasn't the one 
in danger. Ranma was.

        But that would be an ending of a sort too, wouldn't it? 
The props had been kicked out from under her life, and he was 
the only thing keeping her up. And she felt at times that the 
reverse was true. He needed her.

        Her walk home turned into a run, and she suddenly very 
much wanted to hear Nabiki's voice again. There, certainly,  
was an ending, and not a good one at all. Akane had woken 
every day since the accident waiting for the final call from 
the hospital. It had yet to come. She wondered how much more 
she could take, whether Nabiki's death would be a sort of 
relief when it finally came.

        A fresh wave of guilt swept over her at that thought. She 
should be glad, she told herself, should be grateful that Nabiki 
had fought so hard for so long.

        Even though it was a useless fight? her mind retorted. 
One she won't win? She'll die, soon now, and all that her 
fighting to live will have accomplished is driving poor Kasumi 
to the point of insanity from the stress. Can you honestly say 
that this is a good thing?

        Probably not, she thought fiercely, but better than giving 
up.

        And then she was home.

        Remembering the letter's instructions, she tucked the 
tape recorder into her jacket pocket. Not that she was likely to 
be interrupted before she reached her room, but...

        Akane opened the door, saw Ranma, and then saw the 
expression on his face. Her first thought was that the call had 
finally come, that it was finally over. But the expression was 
not so much sorrow, she realized, as an icy, controlled anger.

        "What happened?" she asked, her heart sinking.

        He wordlessly handed her a sheet of writing paper.

        // Saotome,
                We have Kuonji and Shan. If you want them back, 
        come alone to Gunkanjima. If you don't, you'll get them 
        back anyway. Over time.
                Please accept these gifts as a token of our esteem 
        and resolve.
        -Your Friends. //

        "Gifts?" Akane asked, looking around. There, on the hall 
table, sat a low wooden box.

        Gingerly, she walked over, and lifted the lid. Her face 
went white.

        Inside was a single throwing spatula.

        And a bit of Shan's shirt.

        And a severed finger.

        And quite a bit of blood, covering all three items.

        "They wouldn't have..." she whispered, shocked. This... to 
just send them this, in cold blood...

        "Remember Kasumi's finger? Remember the murder 
attempts?" Ranma's voice was harsh, a bit of amusement 
mixing in with the cold anger. "No, they might very well do it. 
That finger didn't just come from nowhere."

        Swallowing, she looked at him, studying the set of his 
jaw, the look in his eyes.

        "You're going to try to get them back."

        He nodded.

        "I have to. If it were just Shan I'd leave her to rot, but 
Ucchan..." He sighed, looking suddenly tired. "I owe him too 
much, still. He's my last friend. The last thing that hasn't 
been..." Trailing off, he shrugged. "I'm going to have to get him 
back. Then things will be even, and I can send him away."

        Her jaw tightened, and she tensed. "I'm going with you. 
Don't even think of trying to talk me out of it."

        He chuckled, the crooked smile appearing. "Why on earth 
would I try to talk you out of it?"

        Akane blinked, taken aback. "Well, uh, I thought.. um.."

        "That I wouldn't want you along because it's dangerous? 
And you might get hurt? You're going to die eventually, Akane. 
Fact of life. But in the meantime, I think you can take care of 
yourself." The smile grew slightly wider. "I didn't teach you as 
much as I could because I thought you needed a good workout, 
you know. Just be careful, and take what we're doing seriously. 
Ucchan didn't, and look where it's gotten him."

        She nodded, strangely pleased. "I'll be careful. I know I'm 
at the low end of the skill ladder."

        Ranma shrugged, studying her. "You might be an even 
match for Mariko. Tsen, you might be able to beat on his worst 
day. Koji would beat you, no doubt about it, but he'd have to 
work for it. Don't overestimate your abilities, but don't sell 
yourself short, either. I wouldn't be going without you along 
for the ride, even with Ukyou in their hands. Rescue yes, 
suicide no."

        Akane smiled. "Think we can take them on? In a straight 
fight?"

        "I'm not sure. It might be interesting to find out." He 
grinned, a predatory sort of smile, and she was surprised to 
find that her own matched it.

        Turning, he studied the note once again, frowning 
slightly. "What's this 'Gunkanjima'?"

        She frowned. "It's an island just outside the harbor. It 
used to have a factory or something on it, but it's abandoned 
now."

        A mirthless smile. "Typical. And just stinks of some sort 
of deadfall or trap, just like the last two."

        She nodded. "It certainly does. Still..."

        "...We don't have much choice," he finished. "Is there 
somewhere we can get a boat?"

        "The fishermen will have a couple craft moored down by 
the docks," she said after a moment's thought. "We could 
probably 'borrow' one of them."

        He chuckled. "Theft? I'm afraid I've led you into evil 
ways, Tendo Akane."

        "After seducing me, once a poor, demure, innocent girl," 
she said in mock dismay. 

        The chuckle became an actual laugh. "You? Demure?"

        She punched him lightly in the side. "Are you saying I'm 
not demure? I should break your face for that."

        He punched back, not so lightly, and she yelped. "I'd like 
to see you try."

        She growled and launched a highkick, which he vaulted 
back to avoid. "If you insist..."

        His foot swept at her legs and she leapt upwards to avoid 
it, twisting in midair as she did to strike at him. He 
backpedaled, avoiding her attack, and then closed in as she 
landed.

        A punch caught her in the side before she could get up her 
defenses, and she winced. Part of her marveled at how little it 
hurt; he must have only grazed her.

        She sent a foot swinging into his torso and then he leapt 
at her in a body tackle, bearing her to the floor beneath him.

        For a short while she tried to flail at him, and then she 
felt his hand pulling away her jogging pants.

        "We should probably leave soon," she whispered, trying to 
free her arm for another punch.

        "Soon enough," he said quietly, forcing her legs apart. 
"Soon enough."

^_-

        It's real name was Hashima Island, but no-one called it 
that. It was known as Gunkanjima, Battleship Island, and would 
probably be called that until it slipped back under the sea.

        It was easy to see how it had earned the name. The 
barren, thornlike spar of rock was ringed all about by a high 
seawall, parapets and towers rising from the rocky ocean like 
the walls of a fortress. The diamond of high walls, with the 
mountain of the island rising inside amidst clusters of 
buildings, gave it the appearance of some great ship of war 
slowly making its ponderous way into Tokyo harbor.

        Buildings it had in abundance, towering structures of 
crumbling concrete and brick. For it had been an island of no 
worth, except for the huge deposits of coal in and under it.

        Meiji had brought industry to Japan, and the presence of 
an entire island of coal just outside Tokyo was no resource to 
be ignored. Workers were rushed in, and shafts sunk deep 
beneath the seabed to mine the black fuel. The first concrete 
building in Japan was built on Gunkanjima's rocky side, a 
dormitory for the miners and their families.

        Industry boomed in Japan. More coal was needed.

        Shaft after shaft was sunk, and more and more miners 
were sent to crawl down into the guts of the island. The first 
concrete building was duplicated all across the face of the 
island, the structures rising higher and higher, the rooms 
barely enough to live in.

        The seawall was built, and the foundry known as Jigoku-
Kado, the Gate Of Hell. And the workers streamed in.

        Nothing grew on Gunkanjima. It was hard to imagine a 
place less suited for human habitation; storms lashed it, all 
water and food had to be shipped from the mainland, fire was a 
constant threat.

        When there was no more room for new dormitories, they 
stopped building up and started building down. Underground 
warrens of apartments crisscrossed the mine shafts, housing 
families and workers.

        War came, and Chinese laborers were imported to work 
the mines. They died in fearful numbers, falling screaming into 
the black depths or devoured by the unending fires of Jigoku-
Kado. Many tried to flee, despite the wall and the towers and 
the angry sea. Few succeeded. Fewer still survived their 
failure.

        Peace, and the need for coal was greater than ever. The 
workers flooded back in waves.

        It says something about humanity that in 1960, 
Gunkanjima - one of the most blasted, desolate, and unsuitable 
places for mankind to live - had the highest population density 
in the entire world.

        Temples, stores, a hospital, salons, schools... all the 
trappings of a modern community. All on an island only a little 
larger than a football field, a city more like an anthill than a 
town.

        And then oil replaced coal as the fuel of modern Japan.

        All of a sudden, Gunkanjima wasn't needed.

        And so, on a rainy day in 1974, the last of the 9,637 
inhabitants of the island stepped onto a boat for the mainland, 
holding an umbrella up to the slight drizzle. Only a few stray 
cats remained.

        Decades passed, and the concrete and brick decayed. The 
wind whistled down the empty tunnels of the living blocks, 
fluttering the papers and posters left behind by the former 
inhabitants.

        Deterioration happened swiftly, violently. Shattered 
windows, smashed furniture, defiled temples. Some said that 
it was the ghosts of the Chinese laborers, finally masters of 
their lightless prison. Others just put it down to vandals and 
the elements. For the most part, no-one cared. No-one ever 
came to Gunkanjima.

        The iron mouths of Jigoku-Kado gaped black and cold, 
waiting for the fires to return.

        They did.

^_-

        Mariko strolled up the rampart, the sea wind blowing her 
trenchcoat in billowing folds around her. Smiling slightly, she 
approached the two figures who sat on a heap of broken 
stonework, scanning the horizon. "Anything?"

        Koji nodded. "There's a small boat pulling close." He 
pointed, and Mariko squinted where he indicated. Sure enough, a 
small fisher craft was angling and tacking towards the rock of 
Gunkanjima. And no legitimate fisherman had any reason to 
head for the island.

        She nodded, satisfied. "Good. I was worried that they 
might not show."

        Her brother snorted. "The message we sent was certainly 
pointed enough. He didn't have a choice." Turning to the other 
watcher, he winced slightly. "Are you sure that was a good 
idea? We could have taken you to a hospital, gotten it 
reattached or something..."

        Tsen laughed, and both Hibikis grimaced at the sound. 
"No, Ukyou take finger, finger stay off. It serve good purpose 
this way." The Amazon pulled his cloak tighter around himself, 
moving his gaze briefly from the tiny boat to his bandaged left 
hand. "It help kill Ranma. That good enough."

        "There are worse causes to lose a finger for," Mariko 
tactfully agreed, hiding her discomfort. "Speaking of Ukyou... 
look, I don't like the idea of leaving her alone like this. All we 
need is her to escape, and it'll be two on three. Three on three, 
if Akane comes along. Which she probably will, damn the girl."

        "Tsen check up on her from time to time," the Chinese 
boy said, smiling bleakly. "Make sure she in her place."

        Lucky Ukyou, Mariko thought silently.

        "Is the furnace ready?" Koji asked, idly tapping his 
umbrella against the parapet. "It would make things a lot 
easier if that works."

        "Ready as it'll ever be. God only knows how people used 
that thing." She shuddered. "'Jigoku-Kado', it had carved into it. 
Along with pictures. And names. This place gives me the 
creeps."

        Koji chuckled. "You didn't live here for a few months, 
though. I did. Gunkanjima isn't exactly a friendly place, but it's 
certainly interesting. And dangerous, if you don't know its 
secrets."

        "You're not reassuring me, brother mine. I don't know its 
secrets."

        "You know one of them. Jigoku-Kado. Whatever you do, 
don't go back in there until this is over."

        Mariko rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to go back in there 
_after_ this is all over. What were you doing here, anyway?"

        He shrugged, looking uncomfortable. "I was hiding from 
Sono. Thought disappearing from the face of the earth would 
throw him off the track."

        "Did it?"

        "Nope. He caught up with me."

        She nodded, catching the dark undertone in his voice. 
"What happened?"

        "He walked into a bad area, and didn't come out. I looked 
for him for a little - not very hard, admittedly - and then left."

        She digested that for a second. "Sono's dead, huh?"

        Koji looked away. "I suppose. That was four years ago, 
and he hasn't tried to kill me since then."

        Mariko nodded, feeling a little depressed. "He was a jerk, 
but I'm still kinda sorry."

        "He was an insane killer, and a jerk, but he was an 
honorable one. He deserved a little better." He shrugged 
slightly. "Still, he did himself in entirely on his own. I'm not 
losing a whole lot of sleep over it."

        Tsen looked at the two, and shook his head. "Stupid. 
Enemy is for killing."

        "Yeah," Mariko said, staring out at the growing shape of 
the tiny boat. "The trouble comes when you aren't sure who 
your enemies are."

        Koji glanced at her sharply. "Ranma is. That's easy 
enough."

        "Oh, Ranma's easy," she agreed. "But how about Ukyou? 
Akane? Do we kill them, or invite them to dinner?"

        "Let them live, long as they no get in way," Tsen said 
lazily, stretching. "If they get in way..."

        Mariko turned away, fighting down the urge to swear. She 
really didn't like this. At all. Akane was going to end up in a 
deathmatch with Tsen, or caught in Jigoku-Kado, or any of a 
dozen other unpleasant fates. And she didn't want that. She 
owed the Tendo family too much already without killing Akane 
in the bargain.

        "Look," she said quietly, "if Ranma and Akane both show, 
let me take out Akane."

        Koji blinked. "Why you?"

        "Because you won't go all out against a girl, and I don't 
trust Tsen here to do it non-lethally," Mariko explained. "More 
importantly, much as I hate to admit it, you're both better 
martial artists than I am. So you should be the ones to take on 
Ranma."

        Tsen chuckled softly. "Is good. You take Akane. Hope she 
not prove too much for you."

        Mariko glared at him. "I've fought her before. She's good, 
but she's not good enough. At worst, she'll just hold me up for 
a while."

        "Don't get overconfident," Koji said, waggling a finger at 
her. "Just take her down as quickly and painlessly as possible, 
make sure she can't get free, and then come lend a hand. I think 
myself and Tsen is enough to take him down, but..." 

        "But the bastard has managed to get out of far too many 
deathtraps already, and there's no sense in taking chances," 
Mariko finished. "Gotcha. I'll try not to take too long, but it 
may turn out to be a matter of wearing Akane down."

        Koji nodded. "With luck, we'll never even have to fight 
him. If the snare works."

        "It no work." Tsen's voice was flat. "It not work before, it 
not work now. Only way Ranma die is by combat, my palm in 
his throat. Your machines and traps no do anything except 
confuse things."

        "It's a pretty straightforward snare," Mariko said, eyeing 
him warily. "The only reason he's here is to get Ukyou back. So 
as long as we have her, we can dictate his movements to a 
degree."

        "We should do simple. Take Kuonji out to dock, put my 
knife to throat, and then tell Akane to leave or he... she die. 
Then kill Ranma."

        "I don't think I want your knife near Ukyou's throat right 
now," Mariko told her. "No offense, but I'm kinda hoping we can 
end the day with only one dead body."

        Tsen scowled, and looked away, out towards the ocean. 
"Not want to kill her," he said softly. "Not kill. But she..." His 
hands clenched, and he stared at the rolling waves with a bleak 
gaze. "She take something I never get back. Better I kill 
Saotome and leave her to stinking Japan."

        Mariko frowned, and glanced down at the base of the 
wall. "Koji, could you check the other end of the rampart for a 
second? Just in case Akane's taking another boat around or 
something."

        "From where? The harbor's the only..." Mariko poked him 
in the ribs, hard, and he blinked in comprehension. "Er, yeah. I'll 
go check."

        As he walked away, she turned to face Tsen. "Look, do you 
want to talk about it?" she said kindly. "I know we haven't 
exactly gotten along great, but you're practically dripping 
depression. And it's not healthy to go into a fight like that, 
especially when you don't know why you're so down."

        The Amazon laughed sourly. "I know why I 'down'."

        "Do you?" She looked at him, studied his empty 
expression. "Is it because you had sex with a girl, or is it 
because you lost someone you were beginning to love?"

        He stared at her, and then closed his eyes. "I... he was... 
you know how damn much I hate Japan? All men weak and 
arrogant, all foreign and _modern_. Except Ukyou. Nice guy. 
Nice, brave, handsome guy." A tear slowly trickled down one 
cheek. "Is too much to ask? Is too much just to have one man 
who not destroy my life? I lose him, and he steal my 
womanhood. How in hell she do this to me?"

        Mariko sighed. "If it helps, I know how it feels to have 
someone you love destroy your life. I used to have a real thing 
for Ranma. And..." She sighed, finally admitting it to herself, 
hating it but knowing it to be true. "And I still do, damn it. In a 
way. Sometimes I wonder if I'd hate him so much if I didn't 
have an attraction to him. It's weird, but I love him also as 
much as I want him dead. Almost. My chief goal in life is still 
to see him die as quickly and painfully as possible, because I 
know for a fact that he's a sick, twisted bastard who's killed 
people I cared about. Somehow, I can feel for him and hate him 
that deeply at the same time."

        "Did you love you brother so much?" Tsen asked curiously.  
Mariko shrugged.

        "Ryouga was... I don't know. He had all of Koji's worst 
features, and very few of his better ones. We got along fairly 
unevenly at best." It felt somehow good to talk about it, to get 
things off her chest. "He was nice in a sort of an awkward way; 
the poor guy wore his heart on his sleeve. Not like Koji, who 
has ice water for blood. I guess the best thing you could say 
about him was that he was basically a nice guy. Koji was 
closer to him than I was, mostly because Ryouga looked up to 
him. After he died, Koji sorta felt responsible. He wasn't, of 
course; he was only a year older, and we Hibikis are a pretty 
independent lot. But my brother has an overblown sense of duty 
and honor."

        "And you?"

        Mariko shrugged. "I think honor is dumb, to tell the truth. 
If I'd had my way, Ranma would've gotten a quick bullet 
through the skull the first day I got here, shot from a nice high 
window with an easy escape route. But apparently that isn't as 
_honorable_ as killing him with hands and feet." She spat over 
the parapet. "Honor simply tells you what you can't do, and 
fails to give a good reason for it."

        Koji returned, frowning slightly. "We'd better get to our 
positions. That boat's going to be here soon."

        Mariko nodded, feeling the adrenaline begin to pump 
through her veins. It would be over soon. "Right. We don't leave 
without Ranma's corpse decorating this rockpile. Ready?"

        "Ready," Tsen said quietly. "This gone on far too long."

^_-

        The tiny fishing vessel slipped quietly up to the decaying 
concrete pier that thrust out from the island. On board, Akane 
stared up at the walls with an uneasy feeling.

        She was almost certain that they had been watched. And 
now they were almost there, and soon they'd be fighting for 
their lives in a place that looked like a cross between an 
abandoned factory, Alcatraz, and Dracula's castle.

        With a bump, the boat slid against the dock. Ranma, in 
the bow, grabbed a rope and nimbly hopped ashore, quickly 
tying the vessel to a metal stanchion. 

        She climbed onto the dock, and glanced at him. "Ready?"

        He nodded, expressionless. "Let's get Ukyou and get out of 
here."

        The dock led to a gate carved in the seawalls, which in 
turn led to a winding, twisting staircase rising through the 
heart of one of the towers. Warily, Ranma taking the lead, they 
inched up it, expecting at any moment an attack or dropped 
missile.

        None came, and eventually they emerged into a street. At 
least, Akane thought, it resembled a street. It was really just 
a narrow corridor between the hulking dormitories, the sky 
almost blocked out by the crumbling buildings.

        One of the closer walls bore a message scrawled in 
spraypaint, and she peered at it, trying to make it out.

        How many decades could have passed
        Since Hashima was left to rot;
        Left to spoil, rot, disintegrate?
        Life will never return to this island.

        She shivered. Life had returned, but unwillingly and 
briefly.

        They walked on, passing between the massive apartment 
blocks, and a creaking, rasping sound became audible. Akane 
almost fell into a fighting crouch before she realized what it 
was; the swaying of hundreds of rotting doors in the sea wind, 
rusting hinges protesting.

        They came to the end of the narrow avenue and entered a 
square of sorts. In the center stood a chipped stone pedestal, a 
corroded statue of a miner standing headless on it at an 
unnatural angle. Taped to its chest was a piece of paper.

        Ranma carefully walked forward, read it, and then tore it 
away. "It says that I'm supposed to follow the directions on 
here, and that they'll meet me at the end of it. And that if you 
come along, they'll start cutting bits off Ucchan."

        She nodded. "What do we do?"

        He frowned, glancing around, his gaze briefly resting on 
where the miner's rusting head leered up at them from a 
gutter. "Look... this is some sorta trap. I'm gonna go where the 
directions say, but I'm gonna keep my eyes open. You scout the 
rest of this place out, see if you can find were they really 
stashed Ucchan. This place is huge, but they've probably picked 
a fairly significant building to hide her in; people are like 
that." He studied the paper once more, and then handed it to 
her. "If you find her, or if you give up, or if you see something I 
should know about, come find me. Carefully. Like I said, this 
whole thing reeks of a trap."

        "And you're just going to walk into it?" she said, uneasy. 
He smirked. 

        "Not just walk into it, no. Reverse it. If I can."

^_-

        Mariko watched as Akane started up a set of stairs, and 
smiled. Good. They were splitting up.

        Her smile widened as she watched Ranma move away 
down a sidestreet, heading towards a half-collapsed factory of 
concrete and iron. He would begin descending, soon, if he 
followed the instructions. And the descent would be one he 
would never emerge from.

        Whistling, she tied a piece of red cloth to a strut hanging 
out over the street, waved at a distant window, and jogged off. 
Akane was heading for the old temple; she would meet her 
there.

^_-

        He went down, passing through the burned-out ruins of 
the old factory. A set of charred stairs, broad enough to 
accomidate several people at once, led him into the bones of 
Gunkanjima.

        The stairs were carved roughly out of the rock, and some 
fanciful artist had painted leaping flames on the ceiling and 
walls. They were now marred by burn marks.

        Down further, and the stairs ended in a tiny room. A 
metal door, similar to that of a bank vault or submarine's 
airlock, gaped open, leading into blackness.

        Ranma ripped the door away, with some effort. It would 
not be closed behind him to lock him in.

        Warily, he stepped through the ruined portal.

        Inside was a tunnel of steel and rock, spigots and 
protrusions coming to rest by gaping, cold furnaces. Ashes 
covered everything.

        He glanced around, nodded, and walked on, into the 
curling, ash-choked, downward tunnels, past the gaping mouths 
of forges and firespouts. Tools and pieces of iron, half-melted, 
lay scattered about.

        Machinery, massive gears and shafts, filled the tunnels. 
The guts of a gigantic engine, now still and cold.

        A creaking drew this attention, once, and he did not relax 
upon discovering it to be merely a vast pendulum of iron 
swaying over a shaft, purpose long since forgotten.

        Smiling very slightly, he continued down.

^_-

        High above, in a mine shaft slightly above Jigoku-Kado, 
Koji watched as a shadow passed the bottom of the air shaft 
he had been watching. Someone was down there.

        He turned to Tsen, and grinned.

        Slowly, savoring the moment, he walked into the next 
room over. There was a shaft there, a narrow, deep, scorched 
chasm of red-black brick.

        He struck a match. Picking up a bundle of oil-soaked 
rags, he ignited it, and then dropped it down the shaft, 
watched it plummet burning into the depths like a meteor.

        "Goodbye, Saotome," he said quietly, tossing the match 
after it. "Burn in Hell."

^_-

        The tunnel shook. He stopped.

        A distant roar...

        Heat...

        He ran.

^_-

        Coal dust and coal burst into flame at the heart of 
Jigoku-Kado. Gases ignited. Flame poured down shafts, 
furnaces belched tongues of fire. 

        Gears began to turn.

        The vast and deadly machine of Jigoku-Kado was coming 
back to fiery life after decades of cold slumber. And coming 
back with a vengeance.

^_-

        Koji stumbled as the building shook, grabbing at a 
protruding piece of iron to keep his footing. "What the hell..?"

        "Stupid, stupid!" Tsen hissed. "You just have to light 
biggest, evilest machine I ever see, don't you? Stupid!" He 
watched in fascinated horror as a chain began to move, an 
ancient pulley system creaking into life. "You start up whole 
damn island!"

        A low rumbling built, began to peak. Koji stared at the 
shaft, blinked, and then turned pale.

        "Run!" he screamed, dashing for the exit. Tsen blinked, 
shrugged, and hastily followed.

        They cleared the room only seconds before a ball of 
superheated flame burst from the shaft, incinerating most of 
it.

        A low rumble spread through the rocks. Jigoku-Kado was 
waking up, and, as the former masters of the island had found, 
served no-one in safety.

^_-

        He ran.

        A tongue of fire burst from a protruding pipe, flooding 
the tunnel with a blazing shower of sparks. Not breaking his 
stride, he dashed through them, covering his face with his 
hands.

        A roar, and he vaulted into a side passage just as a rush 
of flame turned the tunnel into an inferno. Coming up in a 
stumbling run, he frantically began to climb a service ladder, 
going ever higher.

        Light, up ahead. He doubled his efforts, and then a low 
roar and rush of hot air from below caused him to triple them.

        He could feel it coming up after him. Not enough time to 
climb the rest of the way...

        Ranma jumped straight up, all his strength going into 
propelling him into the air. The rush of hot air gave him a 
boost, and he caught the top of the shaft, pulled, and hauled 
himself over the edge in a frantic roll.

        A pillar of fire burst from the shaft, arcing high into the 
island sky before falling apart in sparks and falling rivulets of 
flame. 

        Scorched, blackened, but very much alive, Ranma stalked 
slowly across the ruined factory floor.

^_-

        Koji slowly began to swear. Around him, chains and gears 
turned, machinery designed for some arcane purpose coming 
back to life after decades of rust and silence. "I don't believe 
it. I don't fucking believe it. No-one could have lived through 
that."

        Tsen gave a laconic shrug. "I told you so."

        "Yeah, yeah. Okay, plan B. He still doesn't know where 
Ukyou is, so we just shadow him until Mariko gets done taking 
care of Akane. Then we..."

        A horrible thought suddenly occured to Koji.

        "No, no, no..." he groaned, slamming his fist into the wall. 
"Oh shit..."

        Tsen glanced at him in alarm. "What? What wrong?"

        "We put Kuonji in that stalled ore elevator, right?"

        "Yes? What your point..."

        Tsen stopped.

        Then he looked at the turning, moving, functioning 
machinery.

        "Keep eye on Ranma," he snapped, and dashed off. 

^_-

        Ukyou blinked. The metal floor was moving.

        Moving upwards.

        Towards the top of the pit.

        Standing, she waited and watched. She had no idea why 
her prison was about to become a lot less imprisoning, but she 
wasn't about to let a chance to escape pass. Hanging around a 
dirty pit wasn't her idea of a good time.

        And damned if she was going to be bait for anyone.

        She stretched, trying to get the stiffness out of her 
limbs. Just a little bit longer, perhaps five or ten minutes, and 
the floor would have moved far enough up for her to attempt to 
leap and scrabble her way out. After that...

        Ukyou sighed. After that, she supposed she had better go 
find Ranma, so they could get the hell out of wherever this 
was. And if she ran into Tsen along the way...

        If she did, she would try to put things right. If she could. 
Frankly, she didn't see how, but she had to at least let him 
know that she was sorry.

        And if she met Mariko, or Shan... well, she owed them a 
whack on the head. Especially, she thought with an angry flush, 
for walking in on her like that.

        Ukyou watched the edge of the pit grow closer, waited, 
and hoped like hell that her combat spatula was at the top of 
it. Someone was gonna _pay_ for all this.

^_-

        Akane felt the rumbling, and fought down a surge of 
worry. Was there an earthquake? Was some sort of volcano 
getting ready to erupt?

        Pushing the fear aside, she stalked warily into the 
temple. If some horrible natural disaster was going to happen, 
it would happen whether she cowered in fear or not.

        It had been beautiful once, she immediately guessed. The 
benches, the altar, the statue of the Buddha, the high, arching 
windows...

        But the benches were tumbled and overturned, the altar 
was chipped and defaced, and the windows were smashed, 
jagged shards of colored glass jutting from them like fangs in 
a mouth. The Buddha's head had been broken off and retied into 
position by a length of rope; instead of a figure of wisdom and 
serenity in meditation, it now resembled a bandaged soldier 
sitting in shock amidst the ruins of a city.

        Movement as she entered, coming from the rafters. Her 
eyes tracked it, watched as a flock of pigeons burst from the 
beams to fly, squawking, about the room. They spun and 
wheeled for a few seconds, their beady eyes glaring angrily at 
her, and then burst out the windows in a stream of grey and 
dirty white.

        Feeling somehow like an intruder, Akane walked over to 
the altar, glancing behind it and behind the statue. Nothing, and 
no doors leading to other parts of the temple. As she had half 
expected. Ukyou clearly wasn't being kept here.

        Giving a polite bow to the wounded Buddha, she turned to 
leave. And froze.

        "Hello again, Akane," Mariko drawled, strolling in through 
the broken doors, twirling her umbrella absently. "Welcome to 
Club Med."

        Akane nodded, resigned. "Hello, Mariko. Where's Ukyou?"

        "Ukyou? She's on the island, safe. Don't worry about it."

        "She?" Akane said, puzzled. What sort of game was the 
Hibiki girl playing?

        Mariko looked slightly embarrassed. "He, I mean. Slip of 
the tongue. We'll let him go when this is all over, so don't 
worry about that, either."

        "Minus a finger or two, of course."

        The other girl tsked and waggled a finger at her. "Now 
Akane, I'm hurt, I truly am. That finger was Shan's, and the 
person who hacked it off was Ukyou. I mean, jeez, I don't go 
around cutting off people's digits for kicks."

        "But you do break them for kicks," Akane replied evenly. 
"I thought you might be moving on to new heights of sadism."

        "That's not fair, Akane, not fair at all," Mariko said 
quietly. "It was that or get taken down. You people didn't give 
me much choice."

        "Yeah, there's always an excuse, isn't there? Always a 
justification." Akane fought down the growing anger, let it 
instead be channeled into a cold, icy calm. Mariko shrugged.

        "For me, or for Ranma? It works both ways, you know."

        "What do you want, Mariko? If you're just here to talk, 
I'm afraid I don't have the time for it."

        An object was tossed at her, and she reflexively caught 
it. It was a cel phone.

        Puzzled, she glanced at the other girl. "What's this for?"

        "That's to call someone to come pick you up off this rock. 
When you wake up." Mariko smiled unpleasantly, and hefted her 
umbrella. "Sorry about this, Akane."

        "Mariko, please." As she spoke, Akane slipped into a 
fighting stance, gauging the other girl's likely route of attack. 
"Don't do this."

        "This is for your own good, Akane dear. Inasmuch as 
getting knocked out for several hours is good, anyway. I'd lock 
you in somewhere, but Tsen tells me that wouldn't be very 
effective. So we do this the hard way." Her umbrella came up 
into a fencer's stance, and she slowly advanced. "I wish it 
were different, Akane, I really do. Maybe we could have been 
friends."

        Akane sighed, and began to circle, arms moving up into a 
defensive pattern. "I think we are friends. Despite all this."

        Mariko chuckled. "Maybe so. But we're going to kill 
Ranma, and that'll be the end of friendship." She lunged, 
suddenly, sending Akane backpedaling in a flurry of thrusts. 
"He's very likely dead already, if that rumbling was what I 
think it was."

        Fear shot through her. "What was it?" Akane snapped, 
launching a spinning kick at the other girl. Mariko ducked under 
it, only to be met by Akane's descending fist. Grunting, she 
slammed upward with her umbrella, knocking Akane back 
across the room.

        "That was Koji flooding half the tunnels with fire," 
Mariko panted, straightening. "With Ranma in them. He's very 
probably just a heap of ash right now."

        "You're lying!" Akane snarled, jumping forward. But the 
other girl's expression coupled with the fist that was seeming 
to tighten around her heart told her that no, Mariko wasn't.

        "DAMN YOU!" she shrieked, fury flooding through her, 
breaking away the last of her calm resolve. "BAKUSAI TEN-
KETSU!"

        Her finger hit the breaking point just at Mariko's feet, 
and the temple floor exploded in a blizzard of rock shrapnel. 
And then both of them were falling, weightless, and then 
crashing into a rocky surface.

        Shaking her head, still infuriated, Akane stood. From the 
look of things, they had fallen into one of the mine tunnels, the 
ones honeycombing the island. Apparantly the temple had been 
built only a few feet above one.

        Mariko stumbled to her feet, eyes slightly unfocused. 
"What the hell..."

        Snarling, Akane lunged, grabbing the other girl and 
throwing her against a wall. Mariko hit hard, winced, and 
aimed an overhand slash at her foe, catching Akane in the left 
shoulder. Akane staggered back, and Mariko slammed her 
umbrella forward, sending it directly into Akane's stomach.

        Akane bent double, gurgled, and stumbled forward on 
hands and knees. Wincing, Mariko raised her umbrella, 
preparing to give the final knockout blow to the head.

        Akane leapt.

        The umbrella caught her in her side, and then she was 
crashing into Mariko with savage force, kicking and punching in 
a flurry of savage, delibarate blows. The Hibiki girl reeled 
backwards, her umbrella moving in a desperate attempt to 
block.

        Finally Mariko stumbled back, her umbrella jabbing and 
thrusting to cover her withdrawal. The two girls slowly began 
to circle each other, their movements no longer quite as fluid 
as they had been.

        "Now, why the hell aren't you lying on the ground in a 
whimpering heap, Akane?" Mariko said conversationally, 
feinting a lunge. "I'm sure that hit to your stomach musta hurt. 
Been eating your wheaties lately?"

        "You get to be the one to fall down today," Akane replied. 
"Then, if Ranma isn't okay, I'm going to come back and break 
your neck."

        Mariko grinned at her raggedly. "I don't think so. You're 
not the sort." Without warning she jumped, her umbrella 
moving almost faster than the eye could track. "Too nice for 
your own good, Akane, nice and blind! Now," the umbrella broke 
through Akane's guard, slamming into her head, "STAY DOWN!"

        It had been a good tactic. It left Mariko almost 
completely open, but that shouldn't have mattered. The blow to 
the skull should have sent Akane falling to the ground like a 
sack of flour, unconsious.

        Instead, Akane wavered, cried out in pain, and grabbed 
Mariko with one hand. Then she turned, and threw the other girl 
towards a boarded-up section of wall with almost inhuman 
force.

        With a crash, Mariko hit the boards head-on, breaking 
them apart in a shower of splintering wood. And revealing the 
gaping shaft behind them.

        The umbrella plummeted into it as Mariko frantically 
grabbed for the wall, teetering on the edge. Akane blinked in 
alarm, sucked in her breath, and jumped towards the other girl, 
hand extended to pull her back.

        Mariko's hand closed around a protruding fragment of 
broken board, and she began to turn.

        The board snapped.

        As if in slow motion, Akane watched Mariko's eyes widen 
in terror, her mouth opening in the beginnings of a scream. And 
then she vanished over the edge.

        There was a long shriek, a bumping and clattering, and 
then both faded into the distance. And then, far below, a 
muffled, final thud.

        Akane stared at the hole in horror, and slowly, 
reluctantly approached the edge. It was very deep, and she 
could not see the bottom.

        She backed stumblingly away, numb. She hadn't meant 
to... she hadn't known the shaft was behind the boards, she 
hadn't meant for...

        She hadn't meant to, but she had just killed someone, 
hadn't she? Just killed her friend?

        Was this what it had been like for Ranma? Would they 
both be haunted now, generations of Hibikis coming after them 
to remind them of their crime?

        God, did Ranma ever feel tempted to just let them kill 
him? What had she done? What had she just let herself do?

        With a muffled, choking sob, Akane slowly trudged off. 
Ranma. She had to make sure Ranma was all right. That was 
what was important.

        She hadn't meant to...

^_-

        Koji followed the trail, muttering under his breath. Damn 
Tsen for running off like that. How was he supposed to keep an 
eye on Saotome when he had trouble even finding his own way 
around this labyrinth?

        He quietly swore. Ranma had vanished. Which meant that 
he was now loose somewhere in the maze of Gunkanjima, and 
that all three members of their team were alone and isolated. 
Practically begging Ranma to either pick them off one by one, 
or to grab one of them as a hostage.

        Damn it all...

        He was in a commercial section of the abandoned city; 
one located just under the surface. To be more specific, he was 
cutting through the ruins of a barbershop, sparing an 
occasional glance to the rusting shears and '70s-vintage movie 
posters that still adorned the walls. Glass from a shattered 
mirror crunched underfoot.

        Staying alert, he strode out into the 'street', actually 
just a corridor carved from the living rock. It must have been 
like living in a cave, he thought absently, or a molehill.

        A low, ghostly chuckle drew his attention, and he quickly 
moved towards the sound of it, keeping his movements quiet 
and rapid. It was coming from the crude facade of the old 
bank...

        Umbrella at the ready, he ducked inside.

        The bank had been done in polished wood; the mainland 
substance being an uncommon luxury for the treeless island. 
Pillars of carved rock, the Mitsubishi logo etched into them, 
held up a slightly vaulted ceiling. This had been the center of 
the community's commercial life, and the owners had taken 
care to show the power and grandeur of the corporation.

        The wood was broken and rotten now, boards peeling 
away from the walls like rotting skin. The teller's counter, 
fake marble finish glinting, was pitted and scarred.

        More noise, from down a rear hall.

        He crept down the corridor, adrenaline coursing through 
him, senses straining. He didn't want to take on Ranma by 
himself, but it would be even worse to lose him completely. 
Hopefully Tsen would get back soon, or Mariko.. if they could 
even find him...

        He reached the end of the corridor, and stepped through a 
huge, gaping, open door of some heavy material. Inside was an 
enormous room, concrete walls devoid of ornamentation or 
marks.

        His gaze swept around it, taking in every shadowed 
corner. No exits. Where the hell had Ranma...

        He spun, a sinking feeling stabbing through him, just in 
time to see the huge bank vault door slam shut.

        There was a metallic thunk, as if a bolt had just been 
slid into place. And then a low chuckle.

        Koji ran to the door and pounded, pulled, frantically tried 
to rip it free. It didn't budge.

        His heart sank still further as the chuckling receded into 
the distance, and he resumed his desperate pounding. Not to get 
free, but to attract attention. Because if Ranma found Tsen 
before Tsen rescued him, they were probably all going to die.

^_-

        Her fingers closed around the rim of the pit. Wheezing, 
scrabbling for a firmer handhold, Ukyou pulled herself out.

        After taking a second to catch her breath, she surveyed 
the room. A tiny little rock-hewn chamber, with a flickering 
lamp sitting atop a crate... and look, there was her spatula and 
bandoleer, lying discarded in a corner. How convenient.

        She quickly tossed the bandoleer over her shoulder, 
listening as she did to the rumbling and clanking noises coming 
from the open doorway to her left. Some sort of machinery, she 
guessed... was she in a factory? A functioning mine? Near 
Tokyo?

        Ukyou shook her head irritably. There would be enough 
time for speculation later. The business at hand was for her to 
get out of wherever this was.

        Moving at a low trot, she cautiously entered the next 
chamber. It was like a giant alarm clock, she thought in mild 
amazement, peering about. Enormous gears were rhythmically 
turning in the very center of the room, propelled by shafts of 
iron emerging from the walls. Metal boxes of some odd 
function stood here and there, meshing with the gears in a 
tangle of pipes and struts and flywheels. The entire assembly 
creaked ominously, relentlessly turning and groaning away at 
its mysterious task.

        She strode through the jumble, carefully keeping a good 
distance from the turning and moving parts. This entire place 
made her nervous...

        "That far enough."

        Shan, her hair dripping as if from a recent dousing, 
slowly moved into her line of vision. Snarling, Ukyou's hand 
tightened on her weapon.

        "Get of of my way, lady," she hissed, raising her spatula 
menacingly. "I still owe you for that wakeup you gave me."

        Shan's eyes went wide with fury, and she stalked 
forward, bonbori swinging in a slow, methodical pattern. "You 
owe Shan, eh? You owe Shan? Yes, you do owe Shan, lying 
Japanese bitch. I ki-" With a visible effort, the Amazon's face 
moved into an impassive mask. "You drop weapon, and Shan tie 
you up. Now."

        "I don't think so," Ukyou said evenly, anger bubbling 
inside her. "I think you're going to get out of my way, right 
now, before I beat your hide black and blue. That's what I 
think."

        Shan's face contorted. "You think very stupidly, then. You 
no go easy, then you go hard." The bonbori began to move faster 
in their graceful dance, and Shan advanced...

        "TRAITOR!" Ukyou shouted, leaping forward, her spatula 
scything down in a silver arc. A bonbori leapt up to meet and 
parry it, and then Ukyou dodged as a backswing whistled by 
her. "Liar! You promised to help him, you bitch!"

        "You call me liar!" shrieked the Amazon, fires burning 
under her eyes. "Whore! Liar shit whore! You LIE TO ME!" The 
bonbori rose, slammed down, rose again, and Ukyou stumbled 
back. Her spatula swung and cut, driven by rage and 
desperation, parrying and slicing with all of her skill and 
instinct.

        For a long span of seconds they dueled, weapons rising 
and falling, cutting and hacking at each other in a blind, red, 
crazed fury. Shan came on, an almost berserk light in her eyes, 
and Ukyou was slowly driven backwards. Not working, she 
frantically thought, a sick, enraged feeling flowing through her 
veins. Not working, Shan was going to wear her down unless 
she did something fast...

        "Honorless traitor!" she finally howled, suddenly leaping 
at Shan with her spatula raised high, aiming a cut directly at 
her stomach. "Oathbreaker!"

        "YOU DIE!" screamed Shan, and then a bonbori smashed 
into her chest with incredible force. Ukyou stumbled back, the 
pain in her side telling her that she had probably fractured a 
rib or something...

        Her leg caught on something, a white-hot jet of agony 
shot up her leg, and she tripped.

        Pain, pain, pain and she screamed and screamed and 
screamed and an ashenfaced Shan raised her bonbori crying 
pain make it stop she screamed and the bonbori swung down

^_^

        She tossed the bonbori away, and walked slowly out.

        Mercy. She had shown mercy.

        Machines. Humming and whirring machines, spinning and 
clanking and grinning, quivering with malevolent, inhuman 
power. Leering at her.

        Pace quickening, forcing her legs not to shake, Shan 
strode down the corridor to the place where she had left the 
thermos. Picking it up, she doused herself with cold water.

        Mercy, Tsen thought silently.

        Ranma would be waiting, somewhere out there. He had to 
kill Ranma. That was all that was left. Kill Ranma and go home. 
Maybe life would someday be even close to what it had been. 
Maybe it would even be worth living again.

        Machines, damn city, damn nation of machines!

        Mercy...

        He walked away, wiping at his eyes. It was only the 
water from the thermos, he told himself. Nothing more.

^_-

        The trail was easy to follow. It seemed as if half the 
people on the island had come down this particular tunnel.

        Warily, as if still expecting a trap, Ranma glided into the 
room, silent and swift.

        The humming of the machines, the clanking of chains, the 
grinding of some nameless part; all helped to obscure his 
perception. Carefully, slowly, he surveyed the chamber. His 
gaze flitted over the gears, the shafts, the wires, the pulleys, 
the chains, and finally came to rest on one mammoth cog 
slowly grinding away in the far corner.

        An eyebrow raised slightly, as if in inquiry.

        With great care, he slowly strolled to the other side of 
it. And stopped.

        He bent, and carefully picked something up, turned it 
over and over in his hands.

        A noise escaped his lips, either a chuckle or a sob or a 
little of both, and then he tossed the object over his shoulder. 
It skittered across the floor, clanking, to lie by the entrance.

        Another object caught his attention, and his eyes 
narrowed. He stared at it for several seconds, unmoving.

        A slow, poisonous, crooked smile flitted across his face.

        With a quick, deliberate stride, he loped out of the room, 
following his quarry.

^_-

        "Mariko? Tsen? Let me out of here! Hurry!"

        Akane stared at the vault door, shuddering and vibrating 
under the hail of blows from inside, and hastily left the bank. 
The last thing she wanted to do was free the remaining Hibiki 
sibling.

        You should, a voice whispered. You should tell him what 
you did. You should pay the price for it.

        A slight whimper escaping her lips, she forced her mind 
back towards following the trail. It was Ranma, it had to be 
Ranma, who else would have locked Koji in...

        The path led her along a long, dark way, through several 
corridors with little or no light. She groped her way blindly 
through these, idly wondering if her next step would be over an 
open shaft, over one that would send her plummeting, 
screaming into the bottomless depths just like Mariko...

        Don't think about that, don't think about that, just find 
Ranma...

        She emerged into more brightly-lit tunnels, illumination 
provided by vents in the ceilings and walls, and again turned 
her attention to the trail. It led downward, through the mines, 
past crumbling shafts and holes, past gaping chasms boarded 
up with only a few rotting planks of wood, past abandoned 
picks and shovels and hammers. Some of the shafts glowed, the 
flames of Jigoku-Kado flickering in their depths, burning away 
for the first time in years. A thin haze of smoke wafted up, 
and the hysterical thought flashed through her mind that this 
was the crawlspace in the roof of Hell. And, of course, down 
she was going, down into the bowels of the inferno.

        Clanking and hammering. Footprints showed in the ash 
that wafted up the shafts, covering the floor like dirty 
snowflakes. Akane walked on, down, ever downward, a 
thrumming and grinding echoing ever louder as she went.

        She emerged into a room, the interior of some great 
engine of turning, moving parts, and drew to a stop.

        Bending, she picked up the throwing spatula that lay at 
her feet.

        It was bent, twisted, slightly flattened in odd places. It 
had an oddly greasy feel to it, and she raised the hand that 
gripped it up to the dim light that flickered from a downwards 
shaft. The spatula fell to the floor, and she stared at the 
streaks of crimson that it had left on her hand.

        Slowly, fearfully, she cast her gaze about the room, and 
noticed the splotch of red on one of the massive, turning 
cogwheels. Akane walked towards it, her pace becoming faster 
and faster, and circled around it.

        A choking shriek burst out, echoing over the hum of the 
machinery despite her attempt to stifle it. Gagging, repulsed, 
she turned violently away and vomited, doubling over as bile 
spattered against the metal and stone.

        Ukyou must have fallen into the gears, she thought 
numbly, tears streaming down her cheeks as she retched. 
Fallen in and been crushed, oh god oh god oh god it wasn't fair...

        Straightening, wiping her mouth, she forced herself to 
look back. There wasn't much left of the lower torso, just 
blood and rags of flesh and bone inside the tattered remains of 
a tunic, but the upper part... unmarked. Unmarked except for the 
flattened, purple, crushed side of the face, where he had 
clearly been struck by...

        Akane spun, suddenly realizing what she had been looking 
at while vomiting. A discarded bonbori, the sphere stained 
with blood and hair and bits of skull, lying in a corner.

        Tsen. Or Shan.

        Fury washed over her, and she howled, blindly punching 
the nearest wall in a torrent of rage and grief. Of all the 
people to die like that, of all of them... he had just been trying 
to help a friend, he hadn't wanted anything except to help his 
friend get better, it wasn't fair, it wasn't fair... damn them, 
damn them, he hadn't done ANYTHING! 

        Nabiki, Mariko, Ukyou, all the good people were dying one 
by one, and she either killed them by telling them to go away 
and die, or killed them by throwing them down bottomless 
chasms, or stood helplessly by as they lay in bloody pieces...

        Sobbing, she fled the horrible chamber, the machines 
clanking and whirring with unholy glee. The footprints still 
showed in the ash, and she ran after them. Ranma. She had to 
find Ranma. She had to tell him, oh god, oh god, it wasn't fair...

^_-

        He emerged onto the catwalk, studied the factory floor 
below.

        Silently, his motions fluid and smooth, he crossed the 
narrow span and descended a rickety metal stairway, stopping 
to look cautiously around as he reached the floor. A glance into 
the shadows, at the wreckage of machines and shattered 
crates. Nothing.

        Frowning, he knelt, studying the trail. 

        With a soundless yell, Tsen sprang at him from above, a 
long knife glittering in one hand.

        The serrated blade slashed across his side, opening a 
long, shallow cut along his ribs. He lashed out, striking the 
Chinese boy in the chest, and took a solid blow to his bad 
shoulder in return.

        Wincing slightly, he inched back, appraising the Amazon 
as he did so. "Hello again, Joketsuzoku. You seem to keep losing 
bits of yourself. Bad habit."

        Tsen snarled, and threw the knife, hand reaching inside 
his shirt as he did. Ranma darted to one side, easily avoiding 
it, and allowed something to drop into his hand from his 
sleeve. A rubber-sheathed bottle.

        Tsen's hand emerged from his garment, and a trio of 
throwing stars spun towards Ranma as the Chinese boy leaped 
forward in a kick.

        Twisting, Ranma flung his hand out, popping free the 
stopper of the bottle and letting the contents splash outward 
in a halo of steam.

        A bladed star sliced into his left arm, and then Shan 
crashed into him, dripping from the shower of warm water. His 
hand clamped around her right wrist, and he smiled.

^_-

        "I suspected this was the case."

        From the blackness of a doorway, Akane emerged onto 
the catwalk as Ranma casually pushed Shan against a wall.

        "I suspected, but I wasn't sure. Not until you were 
'kidnapped'. I really think you'd rather die than be taken alive, 
and I doubted 'Tsen' would actually hold you. No, you had to be 
the exact same person."

        She watched as he picked up a long, cylinder-shaped 
piece of machinery from the floor. "That makes it a lot easier, 
really. I know exactly who to blame for Ukyou's death."

        "She.. she fall in, I put her out of her..."

        The metal object lashed out, pinning the Amazon's left 
hand to the wall. His finger tightened around part of it...

        There was a noise like a holepunch piercing construction 
paper, and Shan screamed.

        "I'll be. This riveter still works. Good craftsmanship, I 
guess."

        Whistling, he walked across the floor, picked up a metal 
spike, and pushed it into the appropriate slot. He strolled back, 
grabbed Shan's other hand, stretched it out...

        Akane opened her mouth. No noise came out. She wanted 
to say something, to yell down to him, but nothing emerged. 
She stood, helpless, vocal chords frozen.

        Shan screamed again,  and Ranma stepped back, as if 
admiring his work. Her arms stretched out on either side, 
hands above her shoulders, making her look for all the world 
like a steel-mill version of the crucifixion.

        "I have to admit, you sure kept the letter of your 
promise. I mean, about not attacking me, not while female. 
Handy, that."

        "Bastard," the Amazon choked, "Just kill... just kill and 
get it over with..."

        "Oh, but Shan Pu, we've got so much to talk about! Like 
how you took the last clean thing I had and crushed it into a 
mangled, bloody pulp. Like how you murdered my friend." A 
slight chuckle rose, and he rammed another rivet into the gun. 
"Poor Ucchan. Should have stayed in my mind, back by the side 
of the road when everything was good and happy. Shouldn't have 
come into the pit. Now there's nothing left, nothing but what I 
found afterwards..."

        The rivet gun pushed into Shan's stomach, and a wet, 
muffled thump echoed through the chamber, followed by 
gurgling, choking shrieks of agony.

        "Really, Shan, such carrying on."

        Akane watched, transfixed.

        Another rivet slid into the gun, and it slipped down 
below the bloody hole in her belly, down to where her legs 
began. Almost teasingly, he lifted her dress slightly, squinting. 
The bubbling screams lifted higher, raw terror filling them.

        "This will probably hurt. Hope you've got a tampon or two 
handy."

        Another thump, and the trickle of blood spattering 
against the floor became a steady stream.

        Akane stared down, unable to think, unable to feel, and 
then her eyes locked with Shan's.

        "no.... work.... on... humans..."

        The sentence fell apart into the horrible, bubbling cries, 
but the eyes stayed fixed on hers.

        "Hmm? No, don't bother explaining. Playtime over, bitch."

        Shan's eyes stared into her own, bored into her, screamed 
at her even as Ranma pushed the riveter into Shan's mouth. 
They met Akane's gaze right up until his finger clenched and 
the wall behind her was splattered with streams of red and 
white and sticky grey.

        Akane stood, staring at the place where the gaze had 
been as if unaware that it had been broken, unaware of 
anything.

        As if sensing something, Ranma turned around, glanced 
up. His eyes widened in surprise.

        She looked at him.

        Then he shrugged, the crooked smile seeming to say well, 
what did you expect?

        Akane turned and fled. A low chuckle followed her, 
drifting in the distance as she ran away into black tunnels.

^_^

        She ran, shrieking inside her head, ran and ran until 
finally her feet stumbled and sent her crashing to the stone 
floor. For a long time she simply lay there, a slight whimper 
rising into the air from time to time.

        He killed Shan. She replayed it over and over again, and 
each time saw the same thing, saw the back of her head 
explode in a shower of crimson and grey matter...

        No, no, no, it wasn't that he had killed her. That would 
have been one thing. After what had happened to Ukyou, she 
could have seen him killing Shan in combat, enraged past 
endurance over what had happened. It would have been sad, it 
would have been tragic, but it would have been understandable 
and human...

        But it wasn't that he had killed her.

        It was that he had killed her in a slow, painful, agonizing 
matter, slowly punching holes in her as she hung there, 
helpless. Talking to her in a conversational tone as he punched 
a gaping, bloody hole in her stomach.

        No, and it wasn't even that.

        It was the look on his face.
        He'd enjoyed it.

        He'd enjoyed every second of it.

        Which led to the question, what sort of person enjoyed 
something like that? How could she fit that hard, unpleasant 
fact into the person she'd fallen in love with?

        Kuno's broken leg. Ryouga. Nabiki. A hundred hundred 
things, and maybe he felt sorry about them, and maybe he 
didn't, but that hard, stark fact still remained. That he'd 
enjoyed it. Had he smiled like that as they made love? Had he 
enjoyed the injuries he caused in their sparring, enjoyed them 
as much as the lovemaking afterwards? Enjoyed them more?

        God, god, how right had Nabiki been about him?

        Nabiki...

        Her hand slowly fished into her jacket pocket, withdrew 
a somewhat battered minirecorder.

        Akane hesitated for a few seconds, and then pressed the 
button. She had a feeling that her life was a thing now to be 
measured in minutes, and she wanted to hear her sister again.

        "Hi, Akane." It was Nabiki's voice, somewhat scratchy 
from the recorder but definitely her. It hurt to hear.

        "I'm going to assume that I'm dead, and that you're alone 
as you play this. If one of these isn't the case, turn the tape 
off now."

        A short period of silence followed, broken only by the 
thud of her heartbeat.

        "Okay. Look, Akane, I'm not going to coddle you. I know 
you're probably a bit out of it right now... well, maybe that's 
just me being a bit egotistical." A soft chuckle drifted up from 
the tape. "No, okay, I'll be honest. I know you don't like me 
sometimes, but I also know that you love me."

        There was a short, embarrassed sound, and Akane smiled 
slightly, tears trickling down her cheeks. She had known. That 
was important, somehow.

        "Anyway, I know you're probably upset. Lord only knows 
what Daddy and Kasumi are like. I'll tell you exactly what 
Ranma's like, though. Comforting, sad, maybe blaming himself 
for what happened. For the accident."   

        Akane stared at the tape, the blood draining from her 
cheeks.

        "Yes, I know how I died. A car, perhaps, or a fall, or 
drowning... something stupid, something accidental. It wasn't, 
Akane. I'm making this tape, scared," and the calm voice of her 
sister shook, here, "scared to death because I know how I'm 
going to be murdered."

        A deep breath, almost like a sigh, drifted out of the 
recorder.

        "But Ranma does something by killing me, as he will if he 
gets the whim and opportunity to. He removes any ulterior 
motives I might have. I'm dead, Akane. Shit, it sounds weird to 
say this... I'm dead. There will be no more deals, no more 
scams. I have nothing to gain. I have no reason to lie. All that's 
left is the fact that I'm your sister, and I love you."

        Nabiki, she thought, crying silently. Oh Nabiki...

        "Akane, I know you love him, and I'm not saying that's 
stupid. But he's not right. He's psychotic, Akane. He's already 
threatened me in ways that bordered on rape... putting his hand 
certain places, taking a knife and..." A shrill edge had entered 
her sister's voice, and she heard Nabiki struggle to get it back 
under control. "He's going to kill me if he finds out. He has 
killed me, if you're hearing this. It'll look like an accident."

        An uncomfortable pause.

        "I worked with the Hibikis, Akane. They're really not bad 
people. I made them promise to leave you and the rest of the 
family alone, and in return I fed them information. Remember 
'Azusa', at the Ichishi Building? That was me, in a padded suit 
and wig. I drafted them into getting you out, although they 
didn't need much persuading. As I said, they're basically good 
people."

        She had killed Mariko, killed her, no, don't think about 
that...

        "Since I'm dead," a nervous chuckle, "it probably means 
that he found out about that. I'm sorry, Akane, but I had to do 
it. I know you're in love with him, but he's killed me and he's 
going to kill you, if you let him."

        The tape was silent for a few seconds.

        "Go to the Hibikis. See if you can get their protection; I'm 
sure they'd give it in a heartbeat. Or take the cash you'll find in 
the yellow tin in my dresser, and get as far away from Tokyo 
as you can. Either way, you can't go on like you have. It's too 
dangerous."

        A teardrop splashed against the ashes covering the floor, 
the liquid mixing with the grey char.

        "I'm sorry, Akane. About all of this. And about what I've 
done over the last few years, because maybe you'd have 
believed me if I'd been someone worth believing in. We may 
have words before you play this - I've felt a fight coming on 
for weeks, now - and whatever gets said... I love you. This isn't 
your fault, okay? None of it. You didn't kill me."

        She knew, Akane thought, a sob shuddering through her. 
She knew I didn't hate her. She knew I didn't want her to die. I 
didn't kill her.

        "This won't be easy for you, little sister. Don't give up. 
You're the last real Tendo left, and I'm counting on you to make 
a mark in the world." A low chuckle. "Or a dent, in your case, 
you violent little thug. Don't give up. I love you, and I wish I 
was there to watch you."

        A small sigh came from the tape. "Enough. Hopefully, 
you'll never play this. Goodbye, Akane. Watch your back."

        And then there was nothing.

        Akane quietly turned off the recorder, and stared at the 
walls. She didn't want to believe her sister. She didn't want to, 
but she had no choice. Nabiki had no reason to lie, had been too 
painfully honest... and Shan was dead, tortured to death by a 
boy with a crooked smile.

        Ranma had killed Nabiki.

        She didn't know it for a fact. But she now believed him 
capable of it.

        She thought about the first day they had met, and about 
her sister, laughing. About the afternoons they had shared. 
About how she had opened herself to him, both her body and her 
mind. About Nabiki, in her hospital bed. About the way he had 
held her.

        Akane stood.

        It was too late to run away. It was far too late. There 
was only one thing left to do, and she was the only one who 
could do it.

        Sorry, Nabiki, she silently thought. I know you wanted me 
safe, and I'm very probably going to die. But there's nothing 
else left. Nothing at all.

        Tears drying on her cheeks, she set off for the dock, 
pulling an object out of her pocket as she did.

^_-

        The tower stairs were long and winding, and the only 
way down to the concrete pier. He casually strolled into the 
room at their top, and began to circle around towards the 
stairwell.

        He stopped as another figure stepped from a window 
ledge, hands clasped before her.

        "Ranma."

        "Akane."

        They looked at each other for a long time, the shadows 
and sunbeams dancing back and forth across the room from the 
holes in the ceilings.

        He shrugged, finally. "I'm leaving Nerima. You can still 
come with me, if you like."

        She slowly shook her head. A strange, almost pained 
expression flickered across his face, and then he flashed her 
the crooked smile.

        "Ah well. Goodbye, then, Akane."

        Again, she shook her head.

        He frowned. Slowly, she opened her hand, revealing the 
cel phone Mariko had tossed her. It fell to the ground, and she 
brought her foot down on it, hard, shattering it.

        "You're staying here, Ranma."

        He studied her, a hard look coming into his eyes. "You've 
called someone."

        Akane nodded. "The police will be here in a few minutes."

        "Well. I'd better leave, then. Again, goodbye."

        He took a few steps forward. Akane did not move from 
her position in his path, and he slowly came to a halt.

        "You're going to try to stop me."

        She nodded. "You're not well, Ranma. You need this."

        An incredulous laugh. "I need to go to prison?"

        "Not prison," she said quietly. "A hospital."

        His face paled, and he swallowed. "No. I won't. Never."

        "You need to," she said, her eyes meeting his. "Ranma, you 
have to."

        "No," he replied, smiling tightly. "I can leave now. And I 
will."

        He took a step forward, and she slid into a fighting 
stance. Ranma laughed, puzzled and incredulous.

        "What the hell do you think you're doing, Akane? I taught 
you pretty well, but you couldn't beat me on my worst day. And 
this is not my worst day."

        "I know," she replied evenly. "But I can slow you down. I 
can keep you from leaving until the police arrive."

        He stared at her. She returned it, unblinking.

        "I can end this quickly, you know." A Chinese knife 
slipped into his hand. "There are other ways to end a fight 
besides knocking you senseless."

        "I know."

        "Get out of my way, Akane. Now."

        "No."

        He leapt.

        She met his attack, arms thrusting out in a flurry of 
strikes and parries, one foot pivoting as she launched into a 
spinkick. The knife sliced a long cut along one arm, and then it 
went flying as she landed a chop on his wrist. Ignoring a blow 
to her stomach, she awkwardly seized him and shoved him 
back.

        He began to circle, arms slowly moving, watching as the 
blood trickled down her sleeve. "I will kill you, Akane. If you 
think I won't, you're wrong."

        "I know you can kill me."

        A blinding series of strikes, and she felt his foot come 
within inches of snapping her neck. Summoning all the skill 
and ability at her command, she pushed off the attack, broke 
free. She had never reached such heights.

        Ranma stared at her. "Shan taught you something. You 
should have fallen down by now."

        "Yes."

        He shrugged. "It figures that you'd be harder to kill than 
Nabiki. You did know I killed Nabiki, didn't you? Shoved her out 
into the middle of the street. Wham. She looked real funny, 
flopping around like that."

        "I believe you." Her voice was steady. "And why did you 
jump after her?"

        His smile slipped slightly, and then reappeared. "Alibi. 
Had to look above suspicion, you know?"

        "You could have just not told anyone you were there. Or 
said that one of the Hibikis or Tsen pushed her. There were 
much better ways than nearly killing yourself and hurting your 
fighting potential at a point when so many people were trying 
to kill you."

        He chuckled. "Akane, are you trying to talk yourself into 
believing I won't hurt you? Let me spell things out. I really 
don't care one way or the other. It might be kinda fun to kill 
you. The only thing you have that I wanted was that tight little 
hole between your legs, and I've already had that."

        He launched a spinning kick at her, and sent her 
staggering with a downwards punch when she dodged.

        "Don't get me wrong, you're a reasonably good fuck. 
Squirming and writhing around like that, thinking that it 
actually meant something... not bad for a whore."

        A hail of punches ripped through her defenses, a hand 
clamped around her arm, twisting, spinning...

        There was an obscene snapping sound and she crashed 
into the wall, screaming in agony. She felt her nose break, and 
could tell that something was seriously wrong with her left 
arm as she fell to the floor. In the spinning room, she could 
barely make out the unnatural angle of it, could see a small 
splinter of white bone that had broken through the skin. 
Another cry of pain ripped from her lips.

        A foot poked up under her skirt, prodding her roughly 
through her underwear. "One last time, Akane? No? I was tired 
of you anyway." It withdrew, and he stepped away, watching as 
she convulsed in agony, blood spattering the floor from her 
nose and arm. "All that moaning and wriggling, and no 
technique behind it. Goodbye."

        He turned away to leave, and then Akane did the hardest 
thing she had ever done in her life. She stood up.

        Slowly, her arm hanging limp and useless at her side, 
blood running down her face, she moved into a fighting stance.

        He stared at her in disbelief. "Are you a masochist or 
something?"

        "Ranma... you... need help." Blood trickled unheeded down 
her cheeks over her mouth. "You need to..."

        "What the fuck do you care what I need?"

        "I love you."

        He stared at her. "Haven't you heard a word I've been 
saying? You're less than garbage to me, Akane. I'm going to kill 
you. Get out of my way!"

        She shook her head, blood spattering her shirt. "Ranma, 
let me help you. Please. I'll go with you to the hospital, I'll 
help you, just go with them..."

        "I CAN'T!" he screamed at her. "DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND? I 
CAN'T! I CAN'T! I'VE TRIED, AND I CAN'T! GET OUT OF THE WAY! 
DAMN YOU, DON'T MAKE ME DO THIS!"

        "You don't have to."

        "I don't have a choice," he grated, staring at her with a 
desperate, barely-contained look. "Last warning, Akane. Get out 
of my way or I'll kill you. It's your choice."

        "No, Ranma. It's your choice. It's always been your 
choice."

        He looked at her.

        She nodded, felt the blood drip from her nose and arm, 
and waited to die.

        For a few seconds he stared at her, and then Saotome 
Ranma made his decision.

        The control fell away. The carefully made ropes and 
shackles fell loose, and a deep, feral, enraged fire lit in his 
eyes.

        He leapt for her, screaming, madness and fury and 
bloodlust ripping across his face, teeth bared in an animal 
snarl. He leapt, intent on killing, just a mindless creature of 
hate and fear and desire to murder.

^_^

        Deep under Gunkanjima, the fires roared. They blazed 
past shafts and mines, whistled through rooms, sent a haze of 
ash and smoke drifting from tunnel to tunnel.

        In a room of clanking machines, the ash settled down 
over the mangled remains of Kuonji Ukyou, who lay on her 
ruined side behind a cogwheel, a frozen smile ending in pulpy 
ruin. The bandage around her chest had burst when her torso 
ruptured, and she was, at the last, clearly female.

        In the abandoned factory floor, Shan's corpse hung and 
swayed, the wind blowing bits of whitish ash along to be 
caught in the bloody smear along the wall. A few birds eyed 
her, inquisitive.

        The banging from the old bank vault had subsided to a 
slow, regular pounding, a hopeless, hollow quality to it.

        And in a certain shaft deep under Gunkanjima, there was 
no movement at all.

        The sun began to set. Twilight was coming.

        The waves roared, and the sea birds wheeled and spun 
over the ruined island.

^_-

        It was a leap without the slightest amount of skill, 
without the tiniest bit of Art. It was an animal's leap, a 
crazed, wounded, maddened one.

        Akane drew back her good hand and struck him as hard as 
she could on the side of the head.

        He landed, tearing at her with hands and teeth, and she 
hit him again and again at the base of his skull, sending him 
howling to his knees. It was almost painfully easy. His skill 
had evaporated, the control he had built through the Art 
deliberately released for the first time in years.

        Slowly, still clawing at her, he sank to the ground in a 
boneless heap.

        Akane sighed, carefully wrapped a bit of her dress around  
her bleeding, broken arm, and sat down by him to wait.

        She understood, at the last, what he had done. He could no 
more have let himself be captured and treated than a fish 
could try to leave the water. In the end, there was just a 
choice between killing her and escaping... or releasing his 
control over his madness. And with it, his fighting ability. For 
martial arts was, above all else, control. And Ranma had surely 
known that better than anyone.

        "Thank you," she said quietly. She didn't know if he could 
be helped. She would try.

        And the sound of a shotgun being pumped suddenly echoed 
through the tower room.

        Akane slowly looked up. "Should I be relieved or afraid?"

        "You can get out of my line of fire," Mariko said, holding 
the umbrella in her one good arm. The other hung limp at her 
side, combining with the bruises, lumps, and gashes to give her 
the impression of being more dead than alive. "So I can kill 
him. Or you can stay where you are, and I can kill both of you. 
It's been a really bad day."

        "It's over. The cops will be here any minute, and he's 
going to go somewhere where he won't hurt anyone again. I saw 
what Nabiki tried to tell me, Mariko. I know now."

        The Hibiki girl smiled slightly. "Fine. So get out of the 
way."

        "No. Like I said, it's over. He's going to a hospital, so they 
can try to make him better. I think he's going to be there for a 
very long time. He won't be allowed to hurt anyone ever again, 
and you have about five minutes until the police show up. Kill 
him, and I'll tell them you murdered him in cold blood. Unless 
you murder me too, of course. Well, _friend_?"

        Mariko raised the umbrella, carefully aimed it. Then 
lowered it in disgust.

        "Oh, hell. Okay. But they'd damn well better hold onto him. 
If he breaks out... feh, I'll decide later. I should just kill you 
two right now, but jail doesn't really appeal to me. And I like 
you too much."

        Akane managed a weak chuckle. "Thanks. I think. Your 
brother is down in the old bank vault, locked in; go get him out, 
and I won't tell the police that you two were here. Hide in the 
tunnels, and then after they leave you can sneak out."

        Mariko nodded, eying her speculatively. "You really found 
out, huh?"

        "He killed Nabiki, I think."

        The other girl nodded. "I'll see you again, Akane. Count on 
that."

        With a twirl of her umbrella, she turned and vanished 
down the tunnel. Akane looked down at the boy in the red shirt 
sprawled before her, ran a hand gently along his forehead, and 
waited as the sounds of boats and sirens grew nearer and 
nearer.